No home should be without one

11:24 PM,
Feb. 9, 2013

Written by

Mark Kinsler

"I am making scones," sniffed Natalie, drawing herself up to her full height, such as it is.

For she had seen me looking askance at the bowl of flour on the kitchen counter - a bowl of flour that made it clear she had fallen off the wagon and was baking once again. Undeterred, she continued: "And you can help me mix the flour and the butter together."

For this sort of operation, one needs a device known as a pastry blender, a half-circle of stiff wires on a wooden handle. We have two of them, and my beloved was burrowing through every drawer in search of at least one. She produced an elderly, red-handled ...